About 100 years ago G.K. Chesterton wrote about leisure. In his view the “perhaps most rare and precious (type of leisure) is being allowed to do nothing.” It was his favorite, because it allowed idleness — in Chesterton’s view, the truest form of leisure.

Today the “leisure industry” (strange word as it is) does its best to combat idleness. It promotes exotic hobbies and sports, adventure tourism, far-flung destinations, extreme travel thrills and the like. Idleness is of no commercial interest.

Thankfully there are still some leisure activities where doing nothing and having the pleasure of waiting are an integral part of the pleasure of leisure. One of them is fishing, or to be more precise angling.

In his book “The Idle Angler” Kevin Parr puts it this way,

“To idle successfully one must not simply be lazy. Idleness is a state of mind. Being lazy takes effort and avoidance whereas idleness is the release of that part of our self within which we feel most at ease and most content.”